1. Field of the Invention
Aspects of the present invention relate in general to financial services. Aspects include a payment form factor identification apparatus, system, method and computer-readable storage medium configured to identify the form factor of a payment device.
2. Description of the Related Art
Traditionally, when a consumer cardholder makes a purchase from a merchant, a payment card, such as a debit, credit or charge card, can be used to pay for the transaction. Such payment cards are identified by their unique primary account number (PAN). When multiple cards are issued to an account holder, these cards all share the same primary account number. For example, a husband, wife and child may all share multiple Visa™ cards with the same primary account number, and receive a single consolidated bill. While it may be convenient for a customer to be sent a single bill, purchases made by husband, wife, and child are mixed together on the same bill, and there is no way to identify who made each purchase. The mixing of purchases leads to confusion on who made each purchase, and may also mask fraudulent charges to the account.
Moreover, new form factors of payment devices, such as cell phones, key fobs, and the like are also issued with the same primary account number. As these purchases are made with the same primary account number, it is impossible to identify which payment device was used to pay for a purchase.